Never before in the religious history of
the world has the question of likeness to God been
considered and discussed as it has since the advent of
Christian Science. Prior to that time, the opinion seemed to
prevail to a large extent that mortal man was the "image"
and "likeness" referred to in the Bible, and here logic was
dropped to make room for mere belief, since it is axiomatic
that an effect can never be unlike its cause. Hardly anyone
would presume to claim for the average mortal a likeness to
Deity, if by this is meant a likeness in mind and character.
This, however, was not the concept held as to the likeness;
rather was it believed that, as mortals have bodily forms,
God must of necessity have the same  to establish the
likeness! It was indeed considered presumptuous, if not
blasphemous, to claim that man's likeness to God must be an
absolute likeness in nature, character, and activity, yet
this is surely the teaching of Christ Jesus as understood in
Christian Science.

The belief that the human body is
the divine likeness receives a strong rebuke in that
wonderful passage in the eighth chapter of Romans where Paul
says that Christ Jesus came "in the likeness of sinful
flesh," a statement which nullifies the argument that Christ
Jesus as seen by mortals was the likeness of God. His
likeness to God, in nature and character, was not seen by
mankind, else would they have understood his wonderful works
to be the necessary expression of the divine nature. Mrs.
Eddy says, "No form nor physical combination is adequate to
represent infinite Love. . . . A limitless mind cannot
proceed from physical limitations" (Science and Health, p.
256).

Since this truth has been given
to the world human thought has been rising surely, if
slowly, to the recognition of a truer concept of God and man
than the material or corporeal. A religious woman who had
been exploring the slums once said to a Christian Scientist,
that she was shocked at the awful types which she had seen
there, and that she wondered where the image and likeness of
God was to be found among those people. The Scientist asked
if she felt sure that the "likeness" could be found in her
own drawing-room when her cultured friends were assembled
there. The lady was startled, and said she had never before
seen the subject in this light  that she had always
supposed the image and likeness to mean a fine physique and
a "good face," but that she began to see the utter
inconsistency of such an opinion. It was explained to her
that as we are taught in Christian Science the real man
 the likeness or reflection of God  can no more
be cognized by the physical senses than can God Himself, and
yet that no deep thinker questions the existence of Deity.

Peter says, "Whom having not
seen, ye love." Is it not true that what we really love in
anyone is that which is invisible to material sense? Do we
not love the mental and spiritual qualities and activities
which prove man's likeness to a perfect creator, to divine
Mind? And, be it understood, this teaching of Christian
Science is no mere abstraction, for what would even human
existence be without those things which "eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard"  without love and truth, without hope
and faith, without intelligence and goodness? Without these
life would indeed not be worth living, and God would be
unexpressed  there would be no "likeness." But the
Bible tells us that God has never left Himself "without
witness," and so we have glimpses all through human history
of the divine idea rebuking evil and proving the power of
God, good, the light of Truth and Love shining most clearly
through the nature, character and work of Christ Jesus.

If it is true, as Paul declares,
that "in Adam all die," it is no less true that "in Christ
shall all be made alive." A false concept of God and man has
failed to make any "alive" in the truest sense, but the true
idea of God, revealed in Christian Science, shows us how
"the likeness of sinful flesh" may be "put off," and as the
divine likeness is proved in word and deed, we begin to
realize the truth so beautifully expressed by Paul in his
epistle to the Corinthians (Rev. Ver.): "But we all, with
unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as from the Lord the Spirit."